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“Upon my appointment I found myself constantly hounded with letters, lobbyists, and staffers. Not all negative of course, many came to support my cause and support the work of the Department, but the majority were from those who came to be my greatest opponents.”


“I was tasked with writing a series of what I would now call polemics against, well against most everything, but most particularly any snippet of proposed policy that leaked out of the Department. “


“Beginning in spring of 1953, there were three concurrent plans. The first, being drafted primarily by New Deal Democrats (with some of the higher-level officers of the Department of Health offering feedback), was a sweeping universal healthcare program, an attempt to revive Truman’s healthcare plan. This was officially called the Health Implementation Act though it was more often called the Fair Plan, after the former President Truman’s Fair Deal. The second, being drafted by some slightly more conservative Midwesterners and Southerners, was a plan to improve healthcare in rural regions and offer medical aid to the elderly and some poor (provided they were not ‘vagrants’) and was largely an extension of the Hill-Burton Act. The third and final plan was that being built by pro-business conservative Republicans, who were building a plan to provide a tax benefit to companies which offered health insurance to their employees as well as boosting spending towards research and development (this later became known as the drug subsidy).”


“Dear Fellow Citizens and Countrymen,

“The participation of a former president in matters of national debate is not just abnormal but should be looked down upon. The people have made their decision regarding Truman, if they had wished to hear from him again, they would have elected Stevenson.”


“-Will the President endorse any of the bills on the House Floor?

--The President and his staff wish to make no comment on any bill currently on the floor.

-Will the President endorse the concept of a national healthcare system?

--No, though he will say he hopes to see America get a better healthcare system during his Presidency

-Is it not true that in his time as Governor he supported such a program in the state?

--This is true.”


“I cannot support my fellow House Democrats in regard to the Health Implementation Act, but I wish to offer my reasons why. The first is purely cost, if the bill is accepted in its current form then the budget will be crushed under the load. Programs vital to older Americans like Social Security will likely be robbed to pay for this expensive program. The second is a lack of clarity regarding how it will help Americans in rural counties, offering them insurance that is useless without doctors and medicine to acquire with it…For all these reasons I will not be voting in favor of this bill.”


“By the end of June 1953, it was clear that in their current states, no one of the three bills would be able to pass, so a committee of Democrats and Republicans got together, along with the President and multiple officials from the Department of Health and opened a new discussion with the hopes of pinning down a real plan. Negotiations almost broke down when the American Medical Association demanded access to these meetings, but they were quickly satisfied by the addition of a few more conservative Republicans.”


“Every side of course came in with demands and it didn’t appear as though any compromise would be made. The Fair Deal Democrats actually left the talks two separate times before agreeing to drop their demands for universal care. Shockingly, the strongest speakers against them was a small group of Southern Democrats who ardently pushed for the moderate Republican bill. The Republicans quickly realized that this split could be capitalized upon and out of this meeting came a sort of compromise bill. The bill would continue to expand rural hospitals, provide health insurance to the elderly and working poor, and provide a tax benefit to employers who offered their workers health insurance. It would be amended to add on tax breaks and direct government subsidies to a consortium of drug research companies while on the House floor.”


“A deal was also made to keep Democratic support through the voting process by firing Dr. Falk. Falk had made it clear that he was an ardent supporter of universal care, and such a belief was no longer tenable. Southern Democrats offered one of their own, Lister Hill [of fame for the Hill-Burton Act] to serve as the Secretary. Few found this to be impossible, except of course the few Fair Deal Democrats still at the talks and Dr. Falk himself, though he was quickly shuttled off and closed out. “


“I was shocked when I arrived to one of the meetings and was informed, I was not to be allowed in, when I got back to my office a memo was waiting on my desk, after just five months of service and having barely even begun any planning, I was to be removed. I left my office and began meeting with a smaller group of Democrats in their office building.”


“I followed Senator Douglas to the meetings of the Fair Deal Democrats, and I seem to recall getting quite active in the debates there, soon a few members there took interest in me, said I was a good orator, it was one of my earliest encounters with the Democratic Party and politics proper rather than purely just organizing and community work.”


“Leading the now isolated group of Democrats was House Minority Whip John McCormack. McCormack was not just a paternal figure for many in the group, he also gave their demands real weight in the party and made the group a significant force. He was also quick to try to pull together the same coalition he had pulled for the original Fair Deal votes to coalesce around writing a proper bill for a national insurance. This movement did not go far, but McCormack was still seen as a leader of this now growing bloc. By mid-July though, McCormack had sat through enough meetings with his party and with the President to realize that the only bill that would pass was the ones drawn up by the Conservative Coalition, and so he quickly pushed the Fair Deal bloc to support the bill.”


“Warren was shockingly active during this whole affair. Initially it seemed he was going to be pushing for the same Fair Deal style universal healthcare program that Truman was and so now historians and even analysts at the time must explain, what changed? Some say it was party pressure, others say he was just taking the best deal offered. Regardless, Warren still pushed for the new health insurance bill quite strongly and was one of its strongest advocates, a radical departure from his silence on the matter just weeks earlier.”


“The bipartisan National Healthcare Act has come to the House floor where it is expected to pass with a large majority.”


“NATIONAL HEALTH BILL PASSES”


“In the end, the bill received support from a quite large portion of the Congress. Almost all Democrats voted in favor, and the majority of Republicans did as well (though some splitters remained, primarily from the Taft/Midwestern coalition). With this, the bill was sent to the Senate, where mostly Democratic leadership on the part of Minority Leader Johnson pushed it through.”


“I am glad to finally be able to sign into action a law that Americans have waited for many decades. A law to guarantee that those who cannot reach help themselves will always have access and that no matter where you live or at what level of society you live in this great country, you will have access to good medical care. I am glad to sign into law a bill which will finally improve the health of our nation.”

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